Breaking Bad. Game of Thrones. House of Cards. True Detective. There’s a reason these shows are Emmy-nominated this year for best writing in a drama series. The writers are the best in the business. Check out the insider secrets and expert opinions from three out of four of the nominated shows’ writing teams in THE WRITERS’ ROOM video clips.

In the Theatre, a common rule of thumb says that one must never place a loaded rifle on stage if it isn’t going to go off. (Something about broken promises…) And in House of Cards, Netflix’s hit political drama, created by a Juilliard-trained playwright and first-time TV writer, the rule is sticking fast. Only everyone is breaking promises and guns are going off regardless—that’s not just a metaphor.

House of Cards gives the most powerful capital city in the world the thriller treatment, cranking up Washington corruption a few notches past Watergate. In the high-stakes world of scheming statesmen, anything can happen, to anyone, for any reason. But what’s the most shocking thing that’s happened so far?

House of Cards creator Beau Willimon discusses his writing process, working for Netflix and predicting real-world politics.

Q: How is the US version of House of Cards different from the UK version?

A: The UK version aired in the early nineties, and both the world and television has changed a lot since then. You can look at the way that television has become, in a lot of ways, far more sophisticated, shows are digging into characters a lot more deeply. The British version was groundbreaking for its time because you had one of the first true antiheroes on television. But it’s entire three seasons were 12 hours total, combined, and our first season alone was 13 hours.

Both audiences and critics are relishing Kevin Spacey’s performance as the ruthless political climber Frank Underwood in Netflix’s House of Cards. But this role is just the latest success in the Academy Award winner’s eclectic career. Who can forget him as midlife crisis dad in American Beauty or mastermind criminal in The Usual Suspects? In fact, he’s given so many great performances, it’s hard to narrow them down to a top ten. Still, we tried. Vote for your favorite then tune-in to THE WRITERS’ ROOM: “House of Cards,” Fri., May 2nd at 9PM/8c on SundanceTV.

Corruption and politics go hand in hand. But in the movies, matters get even more extreme with senators who mind-control and presidents who unleash diseases on the populace. Clearly, House of Cards‘ Frank Underwood would fit right in with the top ten deviant politicians ever to hit the big screen. Find out more about Underwood on THE WRITERS’ ROOM: “House of Cards,” Fri., May 2 at 9PM/8c. Until then, consider his back-stabbing cohorts.

1. Adam Sutler (John Hurt), V for Vendetta
By releasing a plague intended to wipe out “social deviants,” Sutler secures power for his oppressive political party and establishes a fascist regime.

2. Bob Alexander (Frank Langella), Dave
It’s not enough that Chief of Staff Alexander replaces the comatose prez with a lookalike. He also frames the dupe for an S&L scandal he orchestrated.

With binge-watching ever on the rise, House of Cards creator Beau Willimon made it clear on THE WRITERS’ ROOM, “A lot of people think because we released all 13 episodes in one day that we’re saying, ‘You should binge watch this.’ In fact, what we’re doing is giving the viewers a choice.” So, viewers —…

After 44 days of work and using 4,051 decks or 218,792 playing cards, Bryan Berg broke his own Guiness World Record for the world’s largest free standing house of cards. Although this is clearly a publicity effort for a Macau casino, the effort is impressive nonetheless especially since yours truly’s last futile house of cards…